One captaincy blunder of each captain in IPL 2020

4) MS Dhoni – Under-estimating Rituraj Gaekwad’s capabilities

The Chennai Super Kings might be out of the playoffs race, but they are not going down without a fight. Even in their worst season, now they have given some reason to smile to their fans by winning their last three ties. It might have come a little late, but they have really got some spark that will keep the team in a good space ahead of the next season. And it can be considered the biggest positive of their campaign that has been full of setbacks.

Injuries, missing key-players, tactical errors; the list is an endless one. It has been that kind of season where nothing has worked in their favor. To add to that, MSD also overcooked his strategy of backing a player to the hilt. In the process, he didn’t ring in the necessary changes and left a player like Rituraj Gaekwad out of the playing XI for most of the season. And when finally Dhoni drafted the youngster into the side, he has shown that he also belongs to the big boys’ league with his consecutive half-centuries.

Gaekwad indeed looked like a fish in a new kettle in his first three games. But it is because he batted out of his normal position, in middle-order, a role he is not used to. He has scored almost 700 runs in the last two seasons of the Syed-Mushtaq Ali tournament. And those runs came when he opened the innings for his team, Maharashtra. That’s where the skipper needed to come in, and understand the youngster’s capabilities rather than undermining his skills and drop him after a couple of failures. So it was a mistake of Dhoni to under-estimate Gaekwad, and it did cost CSK at the end of the season.